Zone+ and Bachir Salloum – Aurora – Sound Avenue

Belgian label Sound Avenue presents its 87th release with the debut of Bahrain born and Dubai based Zone+ (aka Zeyad Mohsen) in collaboration with Beirut native, Bachir Salloum. Both producers are no new names in the deep house scene, having had previous releases on worldwide recognized labels like All Day I Dream, Akbal Music and Guy Mantzur’s Plattenbank Records.

The EP collects three original tracks, starting with ‘Aurora’, a deep and mystic cut led by a driving bassline and a pleasing arpeggiated synth melody surrounded by subtle but groovy percussion. ‘Anbara’ follows up nicely with a deeper production that features a funkier bassline and grows slowly via rising tribal-infused percussion loops accompanied by dreamy celestial pads. ‘Valhalla’ closes out the collection with the most progressive-minded track of the three, featuring evolving percussive arrangements, rising soft synth chords and swinging muffled voices in the background. All three tracks complement each other very well, and with all of them running over seven minutes long, they each represent a journey of their own.

The sole remix of the pack comes from talented Spanish artist Pablo Bolivar, who has risen to new heights in 2017 with acknowledged releases on Akbal music, Culprit and Lucca Bacchetti’s Endless imprint. Sitting somewhere between deep house and techno, Pablo’s interpretation is a punchier production that shows the producer’s revered sensual grooves and melodic arrangements while intensifying the original’s mysticism with rising atmospherics and indistinct sonic artifacts.